After today's editions, the 16,000 circulation afternoon newspaper was being divided into four regional weekly newspapers, said Publisher Murray D. Schwartz.

Schwartz said 36 of the newspaper's 69 full- and part-time employees will be laid off.

The weekly aimed at the city of Holyoke will retain the name the Transcript-Telegram, he said. The other weeklies will be called In South Hadley and Granby, In Chicopee, and In Westfield. The newspaper began publishing the weeklies aimed at Chicopee and Westfield last year.

Schwartz and George Wilson, president of Newspapers of New England, which owns the Transcript-Telegram, announced the changes to the newspaper's staff today. The two new weeklies are to begin publication Jan. 29.

The executives said advertising revenue, which had been hurt by the recession, could no longer support daily publication. The Transcript-Telegram lost more than $1 million since 1988, said Donald R. Dwight, chairman of the board.